A review by finalefile
Intersectionallies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, Carolyn Choi, Latoya Council

4.0

This was a great book overall! It brings attention to so many ways people can be allies and advocate for one another - not just in terms of race, gender, and (dis)ability, but also regarding clothing, religion, languages spoken, and immigration status. Children of immigrants are shown helping translate between English and their parents' native languages, and one family cares for a child until her mother is done with work. I love how all the kids in the books are friends despite their outward differences.
There is a lot of explanatory text in the back about the different topics introduced, but I would still like to see a kid-friendly definition of "allies" and "intersectionality" at the beginning of the book, otherwise kids may wonder what on earth the title means.
(Spoiler for rant on how gender is handled in this book)

Spoiler

However, as a gender critical person, I see some problems with how gender is (briefly) discussed - in the main text, a character named Kate likes to wear a cape instead of bows. This is great! Kids should be able to wear whatever they want. But in the back of the book, it says Kate is nonbinary...implying that clothes define one's gender, which is not true at all! It's pretty harmful to girls to say that not liking bows can make you "not a girl." The main text also says that bathrooms should be a safe space (which is true!) but it shows a transgender symbol on the bathroom door...kids are likely not going to understand the intended meaning here. We can focus on being respectful to everyone and letting them use the bathroom in peace without bringing gender identity into it. The back matter also says that feminism means "equality for all genders," which really waters down the fact that feminism is needed for women and girls due to male privilege and the patriarchy.